With federal prosecutors' announcement Friday that they are abandoning the years-long probe into the River Birch, WWL-AM talk-radio host Garland Robinette issued a statement expressing his gratitude and reasserting his innocence in the matter. It emerged in 2011 that Robinette -- who had been a vociferous on-air critic of two landfills in eastern New Orleans that competed with Heebe's Waggaman dumps -- had in 2007 taken a $250,000 interest-free loan from Heebe.

Robinette maintained he had done nothing wrong. He said he did not mention the landfills on the air after taking the loan, and last year, he repaid the loan by transferring to Heebe a property valued at $235,000. He remains an on-air host at WWL-AM.

Robinette's statement, attributed to his lawyer, was very similar to one issued by Heebe earlier in the day, thanking the team of prosecutors from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section "for reaching the right result."

"I'm happy to announce that we've received notice that the Department of Justice in Washington has concluded their investigation regarding Garland as it relates to the River Birch case...and the matter is now closed," the statement said. "We want to thank the Public Integrity section for reaching the right result and for considering all the information. As Garland said from the beginning he never had done anything wrong. Garland and his family are glad they can now put this behind him."